The Wisconsin State Journal endorsed Rose Fernandez

The Wisconsin State Journal, Madison's other liberal newspaper, announced on Thursday their endorsement of Rose Fernandez for state superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction.

The State Journal endorses Fernandez.

The pediatric nurse and mother of five will be a strong advocate for change -- someone who will use the mostly symbolic post of state schools superintendent as a bully pulpit to press for reforms, many of which President Barack Obama favors.

With so many high school students failing to graduate in Milwaukee, with so much at stake for Wisconsin in the changing, knowledge-based economy, Fernandez is the best candidate to invigorate DPI.

Fernandez, of Mukwonogo, drew public attention last year for her advocacy of public online charter schools. She helped push for a bipartisan legislative compromise that allowed virtual schools to continue serving thousands of students online with more accountability.

Yet Fernandez is quick to acknowledge that online schools serve less than half a percent of Wisconsin's students and "always will be a fraction."

Her primary focus is invigorating brick-and-mortar public schools to give parents and children "a broad menu of options," clear standards and strong support. Like Obama, she favors more charter and specialty schools to encourage innovation, merit pay for teachers and greater emphasis on math and science. Fernandez also supports alternative certification methods to bring more minority teachers into the K-12 system to serve as role models.

Fernandez talks passionately about making sure every child is prepared for a strong start in school. She's not just interested in more 4-year-old kindergarten programs. She talks about the potential need for 3-year-old kindergarten.

Great things are happening in every public school district across the state, Fernandez stresses. Yet great challenges must be acknowledged and aggressively addressed.

Jeff Wood gets mild reproach from state's newspapers

Despite the outrage on the state's editorial pages about the small penalties handed out to drunk drivers, when given a chance to editorialize on a public figure's dangerous combination of drinking/driving/marijuana, the state's editorial boards can only manage a mild "tut, tut." If any of these editors sat in judgement on the sentence to be handed to State Rep Jeff Wood, it would be time to open the bar because the drinks would be on him.

While swerving all over the roads, Wood hit a caution sign. The Wisconsin State Journal points out, "that sign could have been a person." That's right, Wood could have killed someone. What does the WSJ propose should happen to Wood? Should he resign? Should his peers in the legislature think of an appropriate punishment? Should Wood's constituents call for his resignation? What about jail time?

With a new legislative session beginning next month, it's time to get serious. Assuming he keeps his seat, Wood should be the first to sponsor legislation in January cracking down on Wisconsin's drunken-driving scourge.

Whoah. Let's not go crazy here. Propose legislation? Wow. I know it was both possession of marijuana and operating while intoxicated, but proposing legislation might mean he'd have to talk to his staff.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the advocate for tougher drunk driving laws in the state right now, surely would have something a bit more draconian in mind. Ricardo Pimintel wrote in the "Across the Board" editorial blog a letter to Wood,

And we wonder if you would have made this grievous error in judgment if authorities had access to sobriety checkpoints. They may have served as a deterrent.

Ordinarily, this latest arrest -- you are among at least six legislators now who have faced drunken driving charges -- might constitute a conflict of interest, so to speak. We think you can model proper behavior in a couple of ways. 1. Don't ever do this again. and 2. Show that the lesson learned here is that you realize that you posed a risk to yourself and others and that legislation is needed to deter such behavior in others.

To be fair, Pimintel did call for a third conviction to be a felony, but did not suggest what should happen to Wood. But he gets to write on the blackboard 100 times, "I will propose new legislation supporting checkpoints." Oh, and it wasn't really Wood's fault because he was improperly deterred.

Pimintel should just give Wood a hug and tell him, "There's really no bad boys. It's just your environment."

The Chetek Alert actually asks if Wood should be forced out of office.

In the end, Jeff Wood should not be forced out of the Assembly. However, he may want to think long and hard about resigning in order to send the right message to his constituents. They can then choose to elect him to the position again in the next election if they feel he is still the best candidate for the job.

Now there's commitment to treating drunk drivers seriously. Wood should "think long and hard" about resigning. How long? A weekend? Should he be sent to his room without any supper while he thinks about it? They don't even ask Wood to write any legislation.

Latest update on Wood's situation:

WXRO is reporting that despite the distance in time between drunk driving arrests, Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey will charge Wood with a third offense OWI, and the marijuana found in his car is sufficient for Wood to be charged with marijuana possession. Third offense OWI can result in a one-year jail term and a fine of up to two-thousand-dollars.

Post-Obamalyptic thoughts

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you!
God damn you all to hell!
- Planet of the Apes, 1968

One, let's start by acknowledging the voters were wrong on Tuesday. We live in a republic with regular elections. These things will happen from time to time.

Of course, if I was, say, a right-wing version of Wisconsin State Journal, I'd call for an end to elections. But silly me, I actually like elections, even when they pick the wrong people. It's the Neo-Conservative in me.

Let's start at the top. Barry O'Bama is the most Irish a President has been since freakin' JFK. With a name like that and the luck he had during the election, he's more Irish than a Leprechaun. C'mon. Who would'a thunk that entire financial markets would conspire to go into the dumpster just when Senator McCain was building momentum? And that McCain would actually take the bait, ride his White Horse to Washington, and get tagged for bailing out corporate fat cats and doing it incompetently?

It takes the Right Stuff to be so wrong.

But it's not like McCain was exactly cruising to victory when the markets crashed. As Byron York pointed out in National Review, the odds of electing any Republican as president this year were pretty poor. And of course, no mere mortal Republican has ever faced an Irish pagan deity before like Barry O'Bama. When they're sacrificing goats to the guy in far away Kenya, what chance does a guy like McCain have?

Was McCain the best choice for Republicans? Hardly. Former Senator Fred Thompson could have at least articulated a conservative message. Former Governor Romney could have made an economic case for conservativism. Former Governor Huckabee could have made an interesting populist candidate, although I think the party would just as soon evolve without him. Giuliani would have made a great Attorney General for somebody... as long as judicial selections were handled by the White House Counsel office.

But McCain won the primary campaign by default and shortly afterwards his national constituency, the press corps, joined the Kenyan goat-sacrificers in O'Bama worship.

So now we plot for 2012 and a second chance at Barry O'Bama. Fortunately the bench is starting to show some surprising strength. In addition to Governor Palin we have the return of former Governor Romney, and current Louisiana Governor Jindal. Notice something? Conservatives could back any of them. What a change four years will make.

Who are you to argue with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has once again picked my humble little efforts as the weekly Best of the Blogs. Perhaps it was because I took a jab at one of their competitors.

End of the line
Saturday (April 26) was the last day for the regularly printed version of the Capital Times. From here on out, Madison's Progressive newspaper will be pixels and bytes. Ed Garvey will miss it. After all, they gave him a lifetime achievement award. Ann Althouse will not, having been the target of its tolerance of low-minded conspiracy theorists.

I miss the loss of almost any newspaper, and so I guess I'm sorry to see Madison reduced to one daily liberal newspaper. Perhaps if the company that ran both newspapers hadn't let the Wisconsin State Journal drift leftward there would have been room for two newspapers. But when the choices are left and left-er, something's gotta give.

James Wigderson
Wigderson Library & Pub
wigdersonlibrarypub.blogspot.com

Red rag bytes dust

Saturday* was the last day for the regularly printed version of the Capital Times. From here on out Madison's Progressive newspaper will be pixels and bytes. Ed Garvey will miss it. After all, they gave him a lifetime achievement award. Ann Althouse will not, having been the target of its tolerance of low-minded conspiracy theorists.

I miss the loss of almost any newspaper, and so I guess I'm sorry to see Madison reduced to one daily liberal newspaper. Perhaps if the company that ran both newspapers hadn't let the Wisconsin State Journal drift leftward there would have been room for two newspapers. But when the choices are left and left-er, something's gotta give, especially in an era of declining newspaper readership.

As the French Communists discovered in coalition with Francois Mitterrand, it sucks to be at the extreme end.

* Yep, I was two days behind, too.

Shhh, it's a secret IV

I'm beginning to wonder what JB Van Hollen's office is teaching local governments about handling open records requests.

Van Hollen's office is still stonewalling in the Tyler Peterson case.

The state Department of Justice says it needs more time to consider whether it will release autopsy reports on Tyler Peterson and the six people the Forest County sheriff's deputy shot and killed while off-duty back in October.

More than a month after the Journal Sentinel requested full copies of the reports, and six months after the initial media inquiries, the department has yet to conclude whether to make them public under the state Open Records Law.

There is no longer an ongoing criminal investigation in the case because the lone suspect took his life, according to the attorney general's findings.

In a letter responding to a Journal Sentinel request submitted March 4, an attorney in the office said he had not yet balanced the privacy interests of the crime victims and their families vs. the public's right to the information in the pathologists' reports.

Autopsy reports are routinely released in the vast majority of cases.

The autopsy report on Peterson is of particular interest, given the assertions by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen that the 20-year-old shot himself three times in the head during a confrontation with tactical officers roughly 10 hours after he massacred a group of friends in his former girlfriend's Crandon apartment.

To date, the attorney general has released no medical or pathological reports detailing Peterson's wounds and verifying the conclusion that Peterson took his life after being wounded by a law enforcement sniper.

Patrick at Badger Blogger comments:

These strange actions made many question what was going on, was Van Hollen covering something up, or is he just incompetent? I’m no conspiracy nut, but one has to wonder.

In February, Van Hollen released the final report of the incident, but he refused to release autopsy reports. This once again makes people wonder if there is a cover-up. With the Department of Justice claiming that Peterson shot himself in the head three times, but there being conflicting reports of the number of shots being fired, people want to know if these medical reports support the Justice Departments claim. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who did an outstanding job covering this story, has been fighting with Van Hollen to get these reports released, but today, they report that he has turned down their request again.

The paper also raises the interesting fact that two of the primary administrators have abruptly left the DOJ’s criminal investigation section, including the highly regarded Jim Warren. it has been wondered for months if these surprise retirements from the DOJ had something to do with the handling of this case. The news report also adds that the report released to the media in February was edited by Deputy Attorney General Ray Taffora, Van Hollen’s top appointed aide.

The issue of DAG Ray Taffora* editing the documents was addressed recently by a Wisconsin State Journal article:

In an e-mail to colleagues, obtained by the State Journal under Wisconsin 's open records law, special assignments bureau director Carolyn Kelly said if the changes suggested by Deputy Attorney General Ray Taffora "are simply wording or spelling, fine. "

But, Kelly wrote, "We need to be very careful to protect our agents so they are free to report investigations without interference and so their reports are accurate and impartial. "

The report summarized evidence collected after off-duty Forest County sheriff 's deputy Tyler Peterson shot and killed six people and wounded another Oct. 7, and the subsequent law enforcement response. Peterson later committed suicide by shooting himself in the head three times.

Department spokesman Kevin St. John said the changes sought by Taffora were minimal -- mainly providing additional detail and clarifying the chronology of events the morning of the shootings -- and were incorporated into the report released Feb. 7.

Department officials, however, are unable to find Taffora 's original recommendations to support that statement and have refused to make him available for an interview.

Weeks after the report was reopened but before it was released, Kelly was suspended. Her lawyer, Dan Bach, has said the suspension was related to e-mails she exchanged with co-workers, including some in which she expressed frustration with how the department was being run under Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

It 's not clear whether her Dec. 19 note was among that group of e-mails.

The day before Taffora received a copy of the report to review, Jim Warren, the chief of the Division of Criminal Investigation submitted his resignation.

Later in the same article,

Kust 's report was reopened Dec. 18, records show. That day, Taffora sent an e-mail to Virgil and Warren -- whose resignation wasn 't effective until the following month -- saying he was sending them his "hand-written comments " on the report.

Those notes were not included in the records the department released to the newspaper. The department has been unable to locate them, records custodian Steven Means said.

'Handgun or pistol'

St. John said Taffora 's recommendations were reflected in the final version of Kust 's report, which does not differ substantially from Kust 's earlier version, according to a review of both drafts.

Still, Taffora 's request prompted Kelly to write Warren, Virgil and Kust, arguing only Kust could make changes to the report.

"If it changes meanings or outlooks then (B)rad must agree with the change, " Kelly wrote. "If he doesn 't then it doesn 't go thru. Even spellings and what not must come from him, not be changes we make. "

Virgil replied to Kelly in a later e-mail that day that Taffora had requested a change "to identify the supervisors who contacted DCI requesting assistance " and to clarify that the weapon used in the suicide was a "handgun or pistol. "

Taffora also made recommendations Virgil characterized as "stylistic, " which she said she would recommend not be made.

Other changes made to the report after Taffora looked at it included providing a more detailed timeline of events, St. John said. A street name was also corrected.

It 's unclear if other political appointees recommended changes to Kust 's report.

The newspaper asked St. John for an opportunity to interview Taffora, Virgil and Kust. St. John said the department would not authorize them to answer questions about the Crandon report.

Surely Van Hollen and his team realize that sooner or later they are going to have to release everything, whether because they are legally bound or find themselves required to do so because of public pressure.

On April 7th, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had more on how the Crandon case continues to eat away at the department of justice:

On Dec. 5, Deputy Attorney General Ray Taffora -- the top political appointee at the agency -- asked Warren for an update on the Oct. 7 shooting in Crandon that drew widespread media attention. Warren responded that day that the lead agent on the case would finish his summary soon and that Forest County District Attorney Leon Stenz had already received the bulk of the investigative reports.

That didn't sit well with Taffora.

On Dec. 6, Taffora responded: "We need whatever has been sent to the DA. I thought it was clear from a previous Administrators meeting that we were to see the report(s) BEFORE they went to the DA. We should see whatever hasn't been sent to the DA as yet BEFORE it goes to him. I want to make sure we know what these reports say so we are in a position to coordinate with the DA any release of documents/public comments that may occur."

Two weeks later, after Taffora received the reports, Taffora forwarded notes and comments to Warren. Warren then alerted Kelly, the supervisor in charge of the Crandon investigation.

Kelly showed skepticism toward the idea of Taffora weighing in on the report, telling another supervisor, Tina Virgil: "Supervisors may not change agents reports, only the agents can. If his suggestions are simply wording or spelling, fine. If it changes meanings or outlooks then (Brad Kust, the lead investigator) must agree with the change. If he doesn't then it doesn't go thru.... We need to be very careful to protect our agents so they are free to report investigations without interference and so their reports are accurate and impartial."

(*In the interest of full disclosure, Ray Taffora was the attorney for the Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation. I was the organization's president.)

Adios ink-stained progressive hands

Madison is about to be reduced to one liberal newspaper with an occasional leftist insert and a weekly leftwing newsletter. (Ht: Dane101)

Beginning April 30, the news and opinion edition of The Capital Times will be published on Wednesdays. It will be distributed with home-delivered Wisconsin State Journal subscriptions throughout and just beyond Dane County and offered free throughout the Madison area in newspaper racks. It will offer in-depth news and public affairs stories as well as the newspaper's highly regarded opinion and commentary content, Frink said.

The Capital Times will also produce a weekly arts, entertainment and culture section that will be distributed on Thursdays with the Wisconsin State Journal and offered free in newspaper racks in the Madison area. It will replace the current Rhythm publication, which is co-produced with the State Journal and appears in both newspapers.

With its new distribution, The Capital Times will have a circulation of more than 80,000. Current circulation is 17,072. The date of final daily publication is Saturday, April 26. Subscribers of The Capital Times will receive a letter in coming weeks with information about their account.

It was also announced that Paul Fanlund will become editor of The Capital Times, effective immediately, having been executive editor since August 2006. "We believe our plan to combine an outstanding news and information web site with in-depth, magazine-style weekly tabloids is on the mark for the future," Fanlund said. "This move is vital to ensuring the long-term relevance of the Cap Times."

We've been poking a stick in the Cap Times cage about their letters policy. Apparently no wacko letter is beyond publication; they just prefer to keep 'em local locos.

With competition from within, the liberal Wisconsin State Journal, and without, The Isthmus, was there any room left for an afternoon "progressive" daily newspaper?

Update! Brian Fraley takes the blame.

A candid look at the newspaper biz

Caffeinated Politics got an inside look at the changes to Madison's other liberal newspaper, The Wisconsin State Journal, from editor Ellen Foley.

Modern newspapers gave up being the breaking news franchise in about 2001. 9/11 was a defining moment for me. By the time we give our readers our latest available stories at 1 a.m. on most days, the other media on cable, televison, radio and the Internet will have had those stories for hours. So our strategy is to break news in our paper in a second-day way and to post bulletins on our website for the true breaking news.

I won't make the joke about how she's come a long way from singing with Meatloaf. I'm sure she's heard it.